How to Build Your First Sales Funnel in Systeme.io (Step-by-Step, Free Plan)
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A sales funnel, stripped of the jargon, is a short sequence of pages that takes a stranger from "never heard of you" to "opted in" or "paid," with one decision per page. Systeme.io's free plan includes a funnel builder, a checkout, and email automation in one login, so this whole build costs nothing until you outgrow it.
Below is the exact sequence for building your first funnel: a two-page lead magnet funnel, extended to a three-page paid funnel once you have something to sell.
What you need before you start
- A free Systeme.io account. No card is requested.
- One thing to give away: a PDF, checklist, template or short prompt pack. It does not need to be original research, it needs to solve one specific problem in five minutes.
- If you're adding a paid step, a Stripe or PayPal account to connect. Systeme.io takes 0% transaction fees on anything sold through it on every plan, including free; the payment processor's own fees still apply.
The funnel step types, and when you need each one
Most funnels use some combination of these five page types. You do not need all five for a first funnel.
| Step type | Job | Do you need it on day one? |
|---|---|---|
| Squeeze page (opt-in) | Trade the free thing for an email address | Yes, always |
| Thank-you page | Confirm the trade, set expectations for what's next | Yes, always |
| Sales page | Pitch a paid product or service | Only once you have something to sell |
| Order form | Take payment | Only once you have something to sell |
| Upsell / downsell | Offer a related product right after purchase | Add later, once the base funnel converts |
Start with squeeze page and thank-you page only. That two-step funnel is the entire "build an email list" system. Everything else gets added once that first step is working.
Building the two-page lead magnet funnel
- Log in and go to Funnels > Create a funnel. Choose "Opt-in funnel" from the template list rather than starting blank; it pre-builds the two-step structure.
- Name the funnel something you'll recognise in six months, not "Funnel 1." The lead magnet name works well.
- Edit the squeeze page. Systeme's editor is drag-and-drop: swap the headline for a specific promise ("The 12-prompt pack for X," not "Free download"), add one sentence on what's inside, keep the form to name and email only. Fewer fields means more opt-ins.
- Upload or link your lead magnet. Host the file directly in Systeme.io, or link out if you're hosting it elsewhere.
- Set the thank-you page to deliver the file immediately and tell the subscriber to check their inbox, since the actual delivery usually happens by email, not the page itself.
- Connect your custom domain, if you have one, under the funnel's settings. The free plan includes one custom domain, and Systeme's default subdomain link (yourname.systeme.io) works fine while you're testing.
- Add the automation rule. On the thank-you step, go to Automation rules and set: Subscribe to campaign > [your welcome sequence]. This is what actually starts your email sequence the moment someone opts in.
- Publish and test with a spare email address. Confirm the opt-in form saves the contact, the thank-you page loads, and the delivery email arrives within a few minutes.
That's the whole funnel. Most people can build it in under an hour once the lead magnet itself exists.
Extending it to a paid funnel
Once you have something to sell, add a sales page and an order form as steps three and four:
- Add a step to the same funnel, choose "Sales page," and write it around one offer, one price, one call to action. Resist listing every feature; state the specific result the buyer gets.
- Add an order form step and connect Stripe or PayPal in Payment settings. Test the connection with a real card in test mode before sending traffic.
- Optionally add an order bump on the order form (a small add-on offered at the point of payment) and an upsell page after checkout. Both are available on every plan, including free, and are the fastest way to lift average order value without more traffic.
- Point the squeeze page's automation at a different sequence if the paid offer needs its own follow-up, or keep subscribers on the same welcome sequence and pitch the offer there instead. Either works; running two sequences at once against one funnel does not.
The honest limitation
The free plan caps you at three funnels and fifteen total steps. A single lead-magnet-plus-offer funnel like the one above uses two to four of those steps, which leaves room for one more funnel before you hit the wall. The wall tends to arrive when you want to A/B test a second headline or run a second offer alongside the first; that is a "add a step" or "duplicate a funnel" problem, not a "this tool can't do it" problem, but it does mean an upgrade.
The built-in A/B testing is genuinely there on every tier, but it tests page variants rather than testing entire alternate funnel paths. For comparing two headlines or two offer prices, that's enough. For anything more elaborate, you'll feel the ceiling.
Before you send traffic
Test the full path yourself first: opt in with a spare address, check that the automation fires, check that the delivery email lands (not just the confirmation), and check the page on a phone, since most traffic to a first funnel arrives from a phone screen, not a desktop. A funnel that works perfectly on your laptop and breaks on mobile has cost you nothing to build and a fair amount to fix after the fact.
What comes after the funnel
The funnel's job ends the moment someone opts in. What happens next is the welcome sequence: the automated emails that take a fresh subscriber from "downloaded one PDF" to "trusts your one recommendation." We cover the exact structure, five emails over eight days, in how to build a welcome email sequence that sells. If you haven't decided whether Systeme.io's free plan is the right home for this yet, our Systeme.io free plan review covers exactly where the free plan stops before you build anything on it.
A funnel with no sequence behind it still collects emails. A funnel with a sequence behind it turns those emails into a system that pitches your best work automatically, on the day it's most likely to land.
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